This collection contains four full-length novels: Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry, Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home and Monday the Rabbi Took Off.
The novels are situated in the 1960's in the fictional city Barnard’s Crossing, that has always had a bit of independent streak (like the Police Chief is a Catholic in the Protestant-filled Massachusetts :)), yet people are people everywhere, so the murders happen there, too. Luckily our Rabbi is well-schooled in the practices of Talmudic logic!

What I love about the novels is that they deal with the practical living of Jews in the modern (OK, 60's) times. The insight into the living of Jewish community, their interactions with the non-Jewish world, but more their interactions within their community. The witty observations are often eye-opening and always enriching. Having very little knowledge about the Jewish "lifestyle", I have gained a lot of valuable information.
And the dynamics between the authentic Rabbi, who knows what he professes, believes and lives according to, and the more "worldly", practical and opportunistic businessmen involved with the temple is even better and has much to teach me about even the today's dynamics of practical, economy-driven world, that strongly needs authenticity, too.

As for the mysteries - Rabbi is the Sherlockian type of detectives (Poirot comes to mind, too). Meaning - he resolves the mysteries quickly, using his Talmudic training in logic, without any clues collecting or doing the small detective work (luckily, the Police Chief is both willing to listen to and good-natured enough to see the many benefits of listening to the Rabbi well).

The small town charm, the insights and the wit can also help to hid the literary sins here: of the temple interactions being a bit prolonged and the mysteries being in the shadow of said interactions.
But the best plus of this book is the authenticity, so rare in this world of many masks of the modern sensitivites.